For the past week, Wildlife
Friends Foundation Thailand (WFFT), one of the most widely respected
wildlife protection, conservation and rehabilitation organizations in
Thailand, has been harassed, terrorized and raided by Thailand's own
Department of National Parks (DNP) officials.

In the course of their
actions, these officials, who are supposed to protect and care for
Thailand's national parks and indigenous wildlife, have:- Threatened,
belittled and terrorized the volunteers at WFFT- Brutally captured - and
in a number of instances injured - 103 of the animals that had lived safely
and peacefully at the WFFT facilities for years including: macaques,
gibbons, bears, hornbills, civets, an otter, and a binturong- Placed
these animals in rusty cages, most of them far too small for the animals
they imprisoned- Took the animals to facilities that are unsafe,
inadequate and not monitored by qualified animal caretakers- Terrified
and tortured animals that have never been handled by humans and which were
slated to be released back to the wild in the coming weeksThe last time
DNP officials confiscated wildlife from one of Thailand's wildlife
rescue/sanctuaries, those animals were never seen again.

On January
24, WFFT founder Edwin Wiek wrote an article speaking out against the
alleged involvement of various Thai officials and businessmen in elephant
poaching in Thailand, a practice that results in orphaned young elephants
being sold to tourism facilities that offer elephant rides.

At one point, DNP personnel gave staff 2 1/2 hours to
produce the required documentation for all 400 animals under the care of
WFFT. 'This,' protests Mr. Wiek, 'is completely unreasonable. The
documentation for the animals is kept in computers and their request that
they receive complete documentation for every animal would have required
that each set of documents was located and produced within 22 seconds!'

Eventually, WFFT was able to provide all the documentation. However,
this has not resulted in the return of the animals that were initially
taken. In fact, in subsequent raids the DNP ended up taking many more
animals. Overall, 103 animals under the care of WFFT were seized, even after
all the requested legal papers had been presented to and then ignored by the
chief DNP official.For now it appears that the raids have ended.
However, the pain and suffering of both the animals that have been seized as
well as WFFT staff have only just begun.

So what can you do to help?

According to a number of people from Thailand with whom we've spoken,
the best chance for WFFT to get their animals returned lies with the Thai
Royal Family, especially Her Royal Highness Princess Sirindhorn.

Time is of the essence. WFFT does not know where their animals
are, and they are very concerned that they are to be killed or sold to the
illegal wildlife trade.This is about more than just the animals, or the
even the terrorized staff members at WFFT. Mr. Wiek tried to call attention
to poaching activities that are harming wildlife in Thailand, and someone
did not like it. By taking action and making our voices heard, we might be
able to save countless animals from torture and death at the hands of people
motived by profit, and not animal welfare.